"We did what was written, right?!"

Get your visuals right! To paraphrase Ganzeer's message two days after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo: The murderers were camouflaged in black, not in long robes and beards.

And most cartoonists were already doing exactly that. The Black Clad have been all over the picture planes since last summer, giving them a tangible presence to our minds. In fact they may wish for more beards, since their masking have proved to be the perfect canvas to unmasking them, as it is.

For one thing they are constantly being compared to donkeys, configuring the Arabic correlation of "stupid" and "donkey". Doaa Eladl has consequently made the ultimate coupling, camouflaging them as donkeys. With the Qur'an read upside down, and whether Bearded or Black, in her cartoons guns have always just been fired:

Doaa Eladl, Charlie Hebdo, January 13, 2015
- We did what was written, right?!

The cartoon shown is courtesy of Doaa Eladl and must not be reproduced without her permission. A special thank you to Tony Daoud for translating and explaining.